Was Monday that day it was rainy? I can’t remember anymore. Whatever day that was we worked on a bunch of projects to keep busy.

We started with a little bit of watercolor. Chase got a new set as a gift for her birthday. She wanted to make snowflakes, did that for a while and then transformed this one into a self portrait. I’m glad I took these pictures because as much as I wanted to keep it she gave it away.

We went looking for other ideas and I had the presence of mind to peruse the many, many, many books on the shelves in the dining room. On the shelf we found The Klutz book of Artrageous Projects. I picked it up at the book thing mostly intact. We had a lot of fun with it and, well, since the book was free and sitting on my shelf for months I didn’t get all hung up on how we used it. We really enjoyed the sketching activities. I was really impressed by what she could do with a piece of tracing paper. Lots of careful (and quiet) work.

We looked at a lot of the projects in the book but were particularly interested in the Barbie mummifying project. It’s on our short list we just need to find a box the right size for a sarcophagus. That’s for another rainy day though. Wait, maybe it wasn’t rainy… just cold. Because the next project we tried was making sun prints. I remember now it was cold but with plenty of bright sun. We followed the instructions and set out our light sensitive paper. So fun!

Chase really enjoyed the whole process. Composing her picture and then processing it. She totally handled all of the rinsing and soaking. I ordered more paper right away. I have some ideas for what to try next. I bet she does too.

I also want to try visiting the BMA with this project in mind. I want to rip out the card and walk around looking through it to see what we come up with. I don’t know where it could take us.

Someday soon we’ll probably mix up some of the powdered tempera paint too. It will eventually snow, right? The only downside? I liked this book so much it gives me no incentive to stop bringing them home. How have you been keeping busy?